November 2006/2

RK Harrison Insurance Brokers Ltd, the independent London market brokers, will appoint the former Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group executive Dominic Collins to replace its retiring executive chairman, Richard Corfield.

Stephen Way has resigned from HCC Insurance Holdings, the company he founded in 1974, following a company investigation over its stock-option granting practices.

Oxygen Holdings plc, the London market intermediary backed by high profile figures such as ICAP founder Michael Spencer and former Marsh president Bob Clements, has continued the expansion of its broking operation with the acquisition of the business of S

German reinsurer Hannover Re reported a “gratifying” third quarter result in which the group posted net income of EUR123.5mn.

Bermudian (re)insurer Max Re Capital Ltd today (14 November) announced that acting chairman and CEO W Marston Becker has been permanently appointed to the position.

German insurance giant Allianz reported third quarter net income of EUR1.6bn, almost double the EUR894mn it recorded in the prior-year period on 10 November.

Munich Re, the world’s second largest reinsurer, raised its full-year earnings forecast and announced its first ever share buy-back on 7 November as it became the latest industry carrier to benefit from the benign claims season.

Almost a year after unveiling the first motor securitisation, French giant AXA has become the first primary insurer to transfer mortality risk to the capital markets.

Glacier Re, the Swiss reinsurer backed by legendary investor George Soros and US hedge fund HBK Investments, has formed a separately capitalised insurance company, Glacier Insurance.

Hiscox plc’s planned sidecar Panther Re came closer to fruition today (13 November) with rating agency Moody's Investors Service assigning a provisional (P)Baa3 rating to the $72mn senior loans and a provisional (P)Ba2 rating to the $144mn mezzanine loans

Eliot Spitzer, whose investigations into the insurance industry continue to reverberate and precipitated Hank Greenberg’s departure from American International Group, has been voted Governor of New York state by a landslide.

Aspen Insurance Holdings – the Bermudian domiciled (re)insurer which lost three of its four underwriting heads this summer – revealed plans to leverage its balance sheet last week with a $200mn hybrid offering and details of a share buy-back.